Two things change after 50 that make the standard advice slightly wrong. Protein requirements go up rather than staying put, and the stomach gets worse at extracting some nutrients from food. Most of what follows is aimed at those two problems rather than at anything men in their twenties need to worry about.
Oily Fish
Salmon, mackerel, sardines and herring. The NHS advice is at least two portions of fish a week with at least one oily, and most men do not manage it. Tinned sardines and mackerel count, cost very little and skip the argument about cooking fish.
Eggs
Cheap, high in protein, and one of the few foods that carries meaningful vitamin D and B12 together. The old worry about dietary cholesterol has largely faded from mainstream guidance. Two eggs at breakfast also front-loads protein into the meal where most men eat the least of it.
Greek Yoghurt
Roughly double the protein of ordinary yoghurt for the same volume, plus calcium. Men are diagnosed with osteoporosis far less often than women and break hips at a worse survival rate when they do, so bone intake is not a women’s issue. Buy the plain version, because the flavoured ones are largely sugar.
Lentils and Beans
The UK recommendation is 30g of fibre a day and the average adult manages about 20g. A tin of lentils or chickpeas closes a good part of that gap on its own and brings potassium with it. Fibre is also the least glamorous entry on any list like this and the one with the most consistent evidence behind it.
Oats
The soluble fibre in oats, beta-glucan, is one of the few dietary components with a specific accepted effect on blood cholesterol. Porridge is the obvious route and it costs pennies. Instant sachets are mostly sugar and mostly pointless.
Leafy Greens
Spinach, kale, rocket, cabbage. They carry folate, vitamin K and dietary nitrate, and the nitrate is the reason green vegetables keep turning up in blood pressure research. Frozen spinach is nutritionally fine and removes the excuse about it going off.
Nuts
Walnuts, almonds and brazils, in a handful rather than a bowl. They bring magnesium, unsaturated fat and a bit of protein, and they replace worse snacks rather than adding to them. They are calorie dense, which matters if the rest of the diet is not moving.
Berries
Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries have more fibre and less sugar than most fruit for the volume you eat. Frozen berries are cheaper, keep indefinitely and lose very little. This is the easiest item on the list to actually adopt.
Fortified Cereal
This one is on the list for a specific reason. Stomach acid production falls with age, and acid is what releases the B12 bound to protein in meat, fish and eggs, so absorption from food declines even when intake does not. The B12 added to fortified cereals is not protein-bound and is absorbed normally, which makes fortified food a genuinely useful route after 50.
Tomatoes, Cooked
Cooking tomatoes and eating them with a little oil makes the lycopene in them considerably more available than eating them raw. Tinned tomatoes and passata work as well as fresh. The prostate claims attached to lycopene are weaker and more mixed than the headlines suggest, so treat this as a good habit rather than a preventive measure.
What Matters More Than Any Single Food
The protein total across the day is the thing most men get wrong. The standard adult figure is 0.8g per kilogram of bodyweight, but expert guidance for healthy older adults sits at 1.0 to 1.2g per kilogram, and higher again during illness. Protein only holds muscle if it is paired with resistance training, and none of this replaces a conversation with a GP if you are on medication or managing an existing condition.
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